A mix of emotions...

[samq79]

I have to be honest - I don't know how to feel this morning. I'm torn between crushing depression and the sort of giddiness that makes me want to create and then perform a happy dance. Rove is gone and that is exceptional, but...well...


Last night, while having coffee at my in-laws, my wife's aunt, a teacher in the Hartford school system dropped a bomb on me. In order to better teach to the tests so they don't lose their funding, Hartford primary schools have eliminated Social Studies.

SAY WHAT!!!??

I have no concept of how this is in any way a service to our youth, but I can see that it is Hartford trying in any way they can to continue receiving government education money. Now, for a moment, I will outline the provisions of the No-Child-Left-Behind Act.(paraphrased)

If a school does not meet test score criteria two years in a row, then that school will lose their federal funding for education.

So a struggling school district such as Hartford is pushed to not only teach to the tests to best ensure that they will be able to reopen their doors next year, but they are doing so to the detriment of other subjects that are important to the intellectual growth of our children. Art? Not on the test...let's cut it. Music? C'mon...there's no test on that. Those are bad enough, but I suppose you can technically get along without them, but Social Studies? The 13 colonies? The Revolutionary War, THE CONSTITUTION, The Civil War, Women's Rights, Civil Rights? All of these things are integral to understanding the country and the world we live in.

I suppose I'm not surprised that there is a push to not teach the Constitution. When our president feels free to skirt around the foundations of this country, it does make sense that there would be less dissent from the younger population if they were unaware that there is an issue due to their ignorance of that formerly important document set down by our framers.

While I'm at it, I'm going to briefly also assail the Every-Child-Ignored Act in its entirety. The entire act seems completely counterintuitive. If a school district is struggling to educate their children, I believe we should INCREASE funding until they are no longer struggling. It seems wrong to punish them for doing what little they can with scant resources, only to take even more away. It seems like a recipe for failure and for students who don't get a well-rounded education. In cities like Hartford where the dropout rate is already astronomical, removing funding could absolutely cripple the already ailing school system, and lead to an even larger statistic of dropouts!

Teaching to the test is not the answer. It will never be the answer. If we want to foster intellectual growth in our nation's youth, we must give them the well-rounded education that we had. We need to make sure that they have all the tools they need to get into good colleges, and understand the world at large, because in the grand scheme of things, once you are out of school, no employer will give a crap what you got on your state equivalency exam.